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PAGE 12 DECEMBE R 29 , 2023 Y E A R I N R E V I E W YE L LOW SPR INGS NEWS PHOTO BY KATHLEEN GALARZA After a spate of illnesses cut short the McKinney and YSHS stage run of this year’s spring musical in early March, the cast and crew of “Mamma Mia!” returned trium- phantly to the stage April 26, 27 and 28, and performed to a full house each night at the Foundry Theater. Left to right: Olive Cooper, Eve Diamond and Daphne Trillana sing “Super Trouper” as “Donna and the Dynamos.” PHOTO BY RE I L LY DIXON All throughout a perfect early fall day, on Saturday, Sept. 16, over 50 musicians, bands, disc jockeys, singers, songwriters and instrumentalists of nearly every musical genre under the sun performed at the annual villagewide Porchfest. Shown here is local avant garde, “lasagnacore” outfit Trash Fart. Children’s Center. A Columbus native now living in Springfield, Turner has been part of the staff of the Children’s Center since 2018, and replaced former director Dana Zackey after serving as Zackey’s assistant director since 2022. YS SCHOOL S New initiatives In March, YS Schools launched the “Bull- dog Blitz” podcast, which aims to feature students talking in-depth about project- based learning and other work. The same month, the schools also launched the inau- gural ESports team at McKinney Middle and Yellow Springs High schools. In July, prompted by a letter from a group of concerned area parents, the school board discussed how to address the use of phones and other mobile devices in schools. Ultimately, the district decided to use Yondr pouches, which keep phones on a student’s person but locked in a mag- netically sealed bag, with the aim of cutting down on phone distractions. The district announced at the end of 2023 that the Yondr pouches would go into effect after students returned from winter break. At the beginning of the 2023–24 school year, McKinney Middle School and Yellow Springs High School rolled out a new pro- gram that aims to address students’ emo- tional wellbeing. The new program, “Sources of Strength,” is sponsored by the Ohio Sui- cide Prevention Foundation and Prevention First and is designed to reduce the risk of suicide, bullying and substance abuse. Milestones The 61 graduates of the Class of 2023 offi- cially said “farewell” to Yellow Springs High School on May 25 as they graduated in the school’s gym. This year’s senior speakers were Isaac Ellis and Daphne Trillana. Outgoing senior and track team member Malcolm Blunt competed in the 200-meter dash and the long jump at the 2023 Ohio High School Athletic Association state track meet in June. Blunt placed 15th in the long jump and received a medal for a seventh-place finish in the 200-meter dash finals with a time of 22.41 seconds — a personal best. Blunt became the first YSHS runner in 26 years to earn a medal in the state 200-meter dash. Yellow Springs athletic teams also made their mark within the Metro Buckeye Conference this calendar year: In spring of the 2022–23 school year, the boys tennis team were conference champs for the first time in nearly three decades, and the girls softball team took second place in the conference. Getting off to a good start for the 2023– 24 school year, the girls volleyball team were again conference champs this fall, as they were the year before. The boys soccer team also made a good showing, securing second place in the conference. YS schools per formed four shows in 2023: In April, the annual spring musical was “Mamma Mia!” and the theater pro- gram presented a reprise of the fall 2022 show, “Five Scripts Toward an Anti-Racist Tomorrow”; in September, the fall play was “She Kills Monsters”; and in December, the winter play was “Bridge to Terabithia.” The district received an overall five-star rating — the highest rating possible — on its 2022–23 state report card, which was released by the Ohio Department of Educa- tion in September. With hopes of beginning a new tradi- tion, McKinney Middle and Yellow Springs High School students celebrated National Hispanic-Latino Heritage Month with a cultural fair and assembly in October. The event — the first of its kind for YS Schools — was conceived and organized by students. In November, YSHS student Emily Barth was named a Commended Student in the 2024 National Merit Scholarship Program. Commended Students placed among the top 50,000 students who entered the 2024 National Merit Scholarship competition by taking the 2022 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. The schools ended the year by marking the 75th anniversary of the beloved annual School Forest Festival, wherein commu- nity members are invited to cut their own Christmas trees, aided by YSHS School Forest Club members. Farewells, new faces Three longtime educators — study hall monitor and aide Paul Comstock, biology teacher Iyabo Eguaroje and French teacher and counselor Dave Smith — retired from YS Schools in May, at the end of the 2022– 23 school year. In August, school board President TJ Turner announced that he was resigning from his position due to a military deploy- ment. Turner’s term was set to end Dec. 31, 2023. Scott Fife was selected by the board to finish Turner’s term, and Dorothée Bouquet, who had previously served as the board’s vice president, became board president. In November, voters elected school board newcomers Rebecca Potter and Amy (Cordova) Bailey to four-year terms that will begin in January. In December, the board honored Turner and outgoing board members Fife and Luisa Bieri Rios for their terms of service. —Lauren “Chuck” Shows Schools CONT INUED FROM THE FRONT PAGE Arts CONT INUED FROM THE FRONT PAGE by comedian, musician and actor Fred Armisen and a retrospective of the work of the late local filmmaker Julia Reichert. • Longtime Hollywood film director Michael Schultz’s connections to Yellow Springs theater were the topic of a Septem- ber feature about that time in his life. At age 85, Schultz has been directing for six decades. Schultz came to Yellow Springs in the ’60s by way of the McCarter Theater, a respected company that has been producing plays since 1930. MUS I C • Homegrown classically trained cel - list Karen Patterson returned to the area in May, for a performance at High Street United Methodist Church in Springfield. Her repertoire included Bach suites and African American spirituals. • Local saxophone player Danny Sauers was lauded in two benefit concerts in July on his behalf after Sauers was forced to take a short hiatus from work and playing music after a heart-related medical emer- gency. Members of the Yellow Springs musical community, along with neighbors, friends and former bandmates, were on hand for the concerts. P ER FORMI NG ART S • In January, the Foundry’s resident the - ater company, Mad River Theater Works, debuted the one-act play “Freedom Flight,” about the life of Addison White, a 19th- century Black American who escaped from enslavement in Kentucky. • In March, villagers Maya Trujillo and Kayla Graham began offering aerial move- ment classes at the Wellness Center before moving to the Foundry Theater. Folks taking the classes learn to hoist themselves high via aerial fabrics. The duo intends to establish a treasures long buried within the structure of the former church, originally called the Anti-slavery Baptist church. The title also spoke of people seeking better lives after fleeing slaver y along the underground railroad that ran through this area. • In July, YS muralist Pierre Nagley unveiled his newest downtown mural depicting a delicate sunset cascading over a Japanese beach. The mural coated a tem- porary wall erected at the construction site where Earth Rose previously stood. • In November, local multimedia artists Kathi Seidl and Beth Holyoke unveiled their newest installation: a kaleidoscopic fairy ring of felted and crocheted mush- rooms clustered up and around the central pillar in the atrium of the Vernet Ecological Center at Glen Helen. • A major stainless-steel sculpture by Yellow Springs-based sculptor Jon Barlow Hudson was installed outside Ohio Univer- sity’s Clippinger Chemistry Lab in the fall. Entitled “ EIDOLON:NATURE ,” the work is 27 feet high by 16 feet in diameter. It was built at Budde Sheet Metal in Dayton. WR I T I NG • Writer and former Yellow Springs resident Rachel Eve Moulton’s novel “The Insatiable Volt Sisters” was published in April. Now living in New Mexico, Moulton returned to the village after the novel’s publication for a reading at the Emporium. • In April the Glen Helen Association and Tecumseh Land Trust, or TLT, released “Sun and Shadow, Wood and Stone,” an anthology of poems by 61 local and regional wordsmiths who’ve read at the annual Solstice Poetry Reading over the past decade. The anthology was edited by local residents and poets Anne Randolph, a former TLT board member; Ed Davis, who hosted the Solstice Poetry Read- ings for 10 years; and Matthew Birdsall, cur- rent Solstice reading host. • Villager and retired teacher MJ Werth - manWhite’s novel, “An invitation to the Party,” was released by Regal House Publishing in July. A launch event was held at Epic Books. • In October, longtime villager Kay Reimers released “How It Happened,” a nar- rative historical journey about YellowSprings that begins with the physical formation of the land. through the thousand-years-long history of Indigenous peoples, the influx of white colonists, to the foundation of relation- ship between the village and Antioch Col- lege. A launch event was held at Epic Books. • Longtime village resident and author of both novels and academic texts, Barbara Fleming, Ph.D., released “African Ameri- can Mothers: Their Children and Their Poverty in America in the First Quarter of the Twenty-First Century” in August. • The 12th annual Solstice Poetry Reading was held in December at the Glen’s Vernet Ecology Center. Invited poets read original works inspired by the theme “Grounded.” —Cheryl Durgans performing company, and became artists in residence at the Foundry this year. • Mad River Theater Works hosted a two-week summer theater residency work- shop aimed at young artists at the Foundry Theater in June with support from the Yellow Springs Community Foundation and Ohio Arts Council. The residency culmi- nated with a performance at the Foundry. • Showcasing 10 plays by local and international playwrights, and produced by the YS Theater Company, the annual 10-Minute Play Festival was staged in June on the south lawn at Yellow Springs High School. • The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Yellow Springs presented “Springs to Freedom,” an informational and theatrical gathering concerning the history of the Conway-Gwinn Colony, in July. • In August at the John Bryan Community Center, the YS Theater Company debuted a flamboyant rendition of William Shake- speare’s “Taming of the Shrew.” Abbreviated to just “ SHREW !” the company’s interpreta- tion of the play’s peculiar marriage plot was envisioned as one big drag show. V I SUAL ART • In April, Bronx-based artist Rafaela Santos was the first artist to exhibit work in the architecture studio Crome Yellow Springs. Santos’ exhibition, “Hidden in Plain Site,” was “an ode” — to hidden Dedicated to serving the Yellow Springs area for over100 years! State ID # 27702 www.acserviceyso.com e-mail: acyso1@aol.com 116 Dayton Street, Yellow Springs • 937-767-7406 • 937-767-7404 ServiceCompany DON’T WAIT FOR THE FREEZE! CALL US TO SCHEDULE YOUR SEASONAL CHECK-UP TODAY! 444 Remember to look for your invoice in your email! 333 Your local Bryant ® dealer • REPLACE AIR FILTERS every month during heating season; make sure furnaces/heating units and vents are unobstructed. • CHANGE BATTERIES in ALL carbon monoxide and smoke detectors • PLUMBING MATTERS: Disconnect all hoses and winterize summer homes. • CALL FOR ANY LEAKS to prevent emergency calls. IS NOW NEW NAME, SAME GREAT LOCAL SERVICE! Print New owners and longtime Springfield residents Adam & Kimberly Oswalt look forward to serving you! 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